February 26, 2010

The Disaster That Keeps on Giving (Con Artists)

Immediately after the devastating Haiti earthquake, the expected phony charity spam filled the 'tubes. But just because the Haiti recovery may have slipped from the headlines doesn't mean that crooks have given up on it. Here is a Haiti recovery donation scam email I just saw:

We create your indulgence to introduce ourself.We are a group of young minded professional in our own individual rights who has come together from various backgrounds to raise funds to save survivors of the Haiti Earthquake.Due to the present Logistic problems such as these quotes....

Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, the four-star chief of U.S. Southern Command, told reporters yesterday the U.S. military was initially “focused on getting command and control and communications there so that we can really get a better understanding of what’s going on.”

It’s not just the airport where connectivity is lost. The headquarters for MINUSTAH, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, partially collapsed, and a significant portion of its communications network was severed.

How Do We Assist? We have on ground in various villages, locals who help us to ferry relief materials dropped by United Nations helicopters in the air to survivors in their various camps in the interior part of Haiti as government and international attention is only on Port-au-Prince.We need your financial donation to continue the delivering of the relief materials to those who need them the most.

Our activities are approved and monitored by the United Nations and the British Red Cross Society.

Contact us on how you can help by donating to this laudable cause by return email and phone number above.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Mr.Richard Zeeman

There is no such organization, Save Rural Haiti World Wide. There is no registered domain, savehaitiworld.org. The Reply-To: address is to a free gmail account. The phone numbers supplied are cell phone numbers.

This scam is probably being run by 419ers who are diversifying their outgoing messages. They want to get you on the hook and will drain you for everything they can through their proficient con artistry.

Haiti still needs help, but there are plenty of legitimate organizations you've heard of that provide real aid.

Posted on February 26, 2010 at 07:30 AM

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